Sandi Rudy is an American interior designer and Director of Interior Design at Cushing Terrell, a multidisciplinary design firm with offices across the United States. A Registered Interior Designer and LEED ID+C, Rudy leads the firm’s interior design service group, guiding teams across workplace, education, and commercial projects while advancing partnerships and initiatives focused on responsible, sustainable environments that support health and wellness. Based in Austin, she brings a human-centered, research-driven approach to design, grounded in the belief that the majority of life spent indoors should unfold within spaces that are highly functional, adaptive, and inspiring. Through a collaborative process centered on understanding clients and their users, Rudy integrates culture, nature, materiality, and behavioral research to shape interiors that reflect both functional needs and deeply held values.
What inspires you?
I love seeing what other designers are doing. Whether their focus is interior design, fashion design, landscape design, architecture, culinary, or other things, there are elements of structure, composition, texture, and intention that can be seen in all these worlds. Taking time to observe and understand someone else’s inspiration and thought process opens the door to greater creativity in my own designs.
What inspired you to become a designer?
I grew up in a small town in Kansas and didn’t know much about the interior design profession. In college, an advisor described it as a mix between social work and construction, which sounded like an odd but intriguing combination, so I gave it a shot. My first class was “Behaviors in the Designed Environment,” and I was hooked. Our classes involved observing how people interacted with and within different settings and then analyzing why. This is still a key element of why I love design—it’s not just about creating beautiful spaces, but about creating spaces that promote healing, support learning, and increase productivity or creativity, all by the way the space is designed.
How would you describe your design philosophy?
I try not to lead with pre-conceived ideas of design. Design and preference are so specific to each person and client that my philosophy has always been to get to know the client first and let the design follow. Effective, impactful design combines understanding with a balance of form and function—and you need to get them all right.
What is your favorite project?
Every project is my favorite on the day the client moves in. It’s when you see the full vision through their eyes. Seeing their excitement when all the pieces come together and knowing the spaces will enrich their lives is really rewarding.
What is your favorite detail?
I love it when thought and intention extend to the smallest details. The more someone is in and experiences a space, the more they see that each element—from the overall concept to the color palette, light fixtures, pattern on the carpet, door handles, hinges, art, books, and knick-knacks—reinforces the idea and imbues a particular feeling.
Do you have a favorite material?
Aside from design, I love history, so a material with a story is something that always gets my attention. If it’s a fabric made from recycled sweaters or a surface made from lava rock, for example, the story of how and why a product was created provides so much more depth to the overall aesthetic.
What is your process for starting a new project?
Each client has different objectives in terms of what they need and want, and helping them discover what will work best for them always starts by listening. I ask as many questions as possible to find out what is at the core of what they need and build from there. I love having creative explorations with my clients, taking them along on the journey of discovering their guiding objective and then working with them through the process to see that objective materialize.
How do you fuel your creativity?
I get out and explore. Whether that’s taking a walk around my neighborhood, hiking in nature, exploring my town of Austin, or visiting a new place. There’s something to learn in all those places when you take the time to observe and question how and why.
How did materiality shape one of the workplaces you designed for a big tech client in Austin?
The material story for this project started with an outing around Austin, taking photographs of the colors and textures that make up the city, collecting plants and bits of nature. Our team made a huge mood board of all these images, colors, and textures, and it served as a guiding influence as we made design decisions throughout the project. It was critical to our team and meant so much to the client to see their project story represented in these materials. Desert wildflowers inspired the design for this workplace in Austin, Texas—from the agave and cactus flower shapes on the tiles and wallpaper to the shapes and composition of the light fixtures, including the intricate flower details hand-drawn and embossed into ceiling fixtures designed specifically for this project.
What advice would you give to young interior designers?
If you don’t want to do the same thing every day or even every hour, interior design is a great place for you. My day might flow from writing, compiling materials, and drawing concepts to walking a construction site. I love the variety—it allows for each day to be something new.
Images © Andrea Calo
